ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on music and other audio-visual content in the four main incarnations of the long-running BBC children's television programme Postman Pat. British children's television programming may be divided into subcategories related to those K. J. Donnelly finds at the root of all television: drama and current affairs. The chapter discusses that musical characteristics alongside visual and verbal associations, Philip Tagg hypothesised polarities of gender expressed by mainstream scoring practices. New Pat's music and the look of the titles, however, make Pat himself feel more of a cliché and rather less like the 'new man' intimated by Classic Pat's music. The Pat laughing at the end of Nu Pat's title sequence cackles maniacally in front of an adoring crowd, having just airdropped presents to the children. It is unsurprising that Postman Pat's main title and end title sequences have evolved significantly over its 30-year period, while remaining synced to the screen music conventions of the scoring practices of adult television.
